Un-tethered wireless audio system

ABSTRACT

A wireless speaker audio system configured to receive audio information wirelessly transmitted by an audio source including first and second wireless transceivers. The first wireless transceiver establishes a bidirectional secondary wireless link with the audio source for receiving and acknowledging receipt of the audio information. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate with each other via a primary wireless link. A wireless audio system including an audio source and first and second wireless transceivers. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate via a primary wireless link. The audio source communicates audio information to the first wireless transceiver via a secondary wireless link which is configured according to a standard wireless protocol. The first wireless transceiver is configured to acknowledge successful reception of audio information via the secondary wireless link. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/696,985, filed Apr. 27, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 14/290,198, filed May 29, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No.9,020,437, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/220,224, filed Aug. 29, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,768,252 whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/379,583, filedon Sep. 2, 2010.

FIELD

The present invention relates generally to un-tethered wirelesstransceivers that communicate with an audio source, and moreparticularly to an audio system which eliminates the need for a wiredconnection between the first and second wireless transceivers.

BACKGROUND

The most common type of wireless stereo audio loudspeakers consists of asingle radio frequency (RF) transceiver delivering audio to separateleft and right loudspeakers via a wired connection. The term“loudspeaker” as used herein refers to any electro-acoustic transducerand includes, but is not limited to, home and professional audiospeakers and headphones, earphones, ear buds, etc. The audio system mayuse a standard wireless protocol, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi® (based onthe IEEE 802.11 family of standards of the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers) or the like. The term “standard wirelessprotocol” or “standard protocol” as used herein refers to any open orpublicly available wireless protocol or any wireless protocol that is aproduct of a standards body or special interest group, which includesbut is not limited to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi®. The term “proprietarywireless protocol” or “proprietary protocol” as used herein refers toany wireless protocol other than a standard wireless protocol. Lesscommon configurations are wireless loudspeakers that consist of separateRF receivers for the left and right audio channel. These loudspeakersuse proprietary wireless protocols only.

A significant disadvantage of wireless stereo loudspeakers that use aproprietary wireless protocol is that a separate RF transmitter must beadded to the audio source since the audio source does not otherwisesupport the proprietary protocol. These RF transmitters are typically inthe form of a dongle, which plugs into the audio source. The dongle addsbulk to portable systems, and shortens battery life if it draws powerfrom the audio source. If the dongle has its own power source, then itbecomes one more item that requires a charger.

A significant disadvantage of wireless stereo loudspeakers that usestandard protocols, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi® or the like, is thatthese protocols were not designed to reliably carry stereo audio trafficto separate left and right receivers. Therefore, current systems thatuse standard protocols use a wired connection between the left and rightloudspeakers. This results in unsightly or otherwise inconvenient cablesfor traditional loudspeaker systems, or awkward form factors for smalldevices such as headphones.

Other corresponding issues related to the prior art will become apparentto one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with thepresent invention as described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The benefits, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome better understood with regard to the following description, andaccompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system implementedaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system implementedaccording to one embodiment of the present invention including aparticipant and an observer of wireless communications;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system implementedaccording to one embodiment of the present invention including a bridgeconfiguration for wireless communications;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system implementedaccording to a more specific embodiment using Bluetooth stereo audiotransported via the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) forwireless communications;

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the wireless audiosystem of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system implemented in asubstantially similar manner as the audio system of FIG. 4 with abidirectional acknowledge link for increased robustness; and

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the wireless audiosystem of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skillin the art to make and use the present invention as provided within thecontext of a particular application and its requirements. Variousmodifications to the preferred embodiment will, however, be apparent toone skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may beapplied to other embodiments. Therefore, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the particular embodiments shown and describedherein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with theprinciples and novel features herein disclosed.

Various embodiments disclosed herein incorporate a primary RF wirelesslink between a pair of loudspeakers and a secondary RF wireless linkbetween the audio source and one of the loudspeakers. The primary linkmay follow a standard wireless protocol, a proprietary wirelessprotocol, or a combination thereof. The secondary wireless link mayfollow a standard protocol, thus ensuring compatibility with the largestnumber of audio sources.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system 100 implementedaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Thewireless audio system 100 includes an audio source 101, a firstloudspeaker 103 (LOUDSPEAKER1) and a second loudspeaker 105(LOUDSPEAKER2). The specific configuration of the audio source 101 andeach of the loudspeakers 103 and 105 depends upon the particularapplication, which may have any one of several forms. The audio source101 may be implemented as any one of a mobile phone (e.g., Blackberry,iPhone, etc.), a portable game player, a portable media player (e.g.,MP3 player, iPod, etc.), a computer (e.g., PC, Apple computer, etc.), anaudio/video (A/V) receiver as part of a home entertainment or hometheater system, etc. An A/V receiver, for example, may have both wiredand wireless loudspeakers, where the loudspeakers 103 and 105 may bewireless rear channel speakers or the like. The loudspeakers 103 and 105are configured as any type of electro-acoustic transducers forconverting audio information into sound, such as home or professionalspeakers, headphones, earphones, car buds, etc. The present invention isnot limited to any particular physical format or size of the audiosource and speaker configuration. The loudspeaker 103 may be a leftchannel speaker and the loudspeaker 105 may be a right channel speaker,or vice-versa, in which either loudspeaker may be configured for eitherstereo channel.

The audio source 101 and the loudspeakers 103 and 105 each have awireless transceiver for sending and receiving wireless communications.As shown, the audio source 101 includes a wireless transceiver (TXVR)102, the loudspeaker 103 includes a wireless transceiver 104, and theloudspeaker 105 includes a wireless transceiver 106. The transceivers104 and 106 of the loudspeakers 103 and 105 establish a primary wirelesslink 107. The transceiver of one of the loudspeakers, such as thetransceiver 104, establishes a secondary wireless link 109 with thetransceiver 102 of the audio source 101.

In one embodiment, the audio source 101 wirelessly transmits (via TXVR102) a stream of audio stereo information in the form of one or morepackets as understood by those of ordinary skill in the art of wirelesscommunications. Each packet incorporates stereo audio information in theform of compressed or uncompressed stereo samples. The stereo audioinformation incorporates stereo samples for first and second audiochannels, such as Left and Right channels or the like. As shown, forexample, the audio source 101 wirelessly transmits a packet 111incorporating audio information, which is conveyed to the loudspeaker103 via the secondary wireless link 109. The loudspeaker 103 wirelesslytransmits (via TXVR 104) an acknowledgement packet 113 back to the audiosource 101 upon successful reception of the packet 111.

The primary wireless link 107 enables wireless communications betweenthe loudspeakers 103 and 105. The communication on the primary wirelesslink 107 depends upon the particular embodiment, as further describedherein. In one embodiment, the loudspeaker 103 relays audio informationfor conversion by the loudspeaker 105 via the primary wireless link 107.In another embodiment, communication information is provided by theloudspeaker 103 to the loudspeaker 105 to enable the transceiver 106 to“snoop” communications on the secondary wireless link 109.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system 200 implementedaccording to one embodiment of the present invention including aparticipant and an observer of wireless communications. The wirelessaudio system 200 includes the audio source 101 and the loudspeakers 103and 105 in a similar manner as shown for the wireless audio system 100.The transceivers 102, 104 and 106 are included in the respectivecomponents, but are not shown for purposes of simplicity ofillustration. The secondary wireless link 109 is established between theaudio source 101 and the loudspeaker 103 and the primary wireless link107 is established between the loudspeakers 103 and 105 in substantiallythe same manner. In this case, the loudspeaker 103 is configured as aparticipant in the wireless communications across the secondary wirelesslink 109, whereas the loudspeaker 105 is configured only as an observerin wireless communications across the secondary wireless link 109. As anobserver the loudspeaker 105 only receives audio information from theaudio source 101 as further described herein, but docs not transmitinformation to the audio source 101.

Once the primary and secondary wireless links 107 and 109 areestablished, the loudspeaker 103 sends one or more communicationparameters 201 to the loudspeaker 105 via the secondary wireless link109 in order to enable the loudspeaker 105 to receive packetstransmitted by the audio source 101. The loudspeaker 105 configures itstransceiver 106 to receive communications from the audio source 101 inaccordance with the communication parameters 201, and establishes aunidirectional wireless communication path 203 from the audio source 101to the loudspeaker 105. The communication path 203 enables theloudspeaker 105 to snoop, listen or otherwise eavesdrop communicationson the secondary wireless link 109 via the wireless path 203. Asunderstood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the wirelesscommunications from the audio source 101 are typically omni-directionalso that the loudspeakers 103 and 105 both receive wireless energytransmissions from the audio source 101. As shown, the transceiver 106is configured to snoop the secondary wireless link 109 (via path 203) toreceive audio information from the audio source 101, such as the packet111.

In this case, the primary wireless link 107 may be used by thetransceiver 106 of the loudspeaker 105 to acknowledge successfulreception of communications from the audio source 101. As shown, theloudspeaker 105 transmits acknowledge information 205 to the loudspeaker103 upon successful reception of a wireless communication from the audiosource 101, such as the packet 111.

In this manner, both loudspeakers 103 and 105 receive audio informationover the secondary wireless link 109. As previously described, eachwireless packet incorporates stereo audio information including firstand second audio channels, such as the left audio channel and the rightaudio channel. One loudspeaker extracts the left audio channel from eachpacket of the stereo stream for playback, while the other extracts theright channel. When the observer loudspeaker 105 receives a packet fromthe audio source 101, it provides an acknowledgement to the participantloudspeaker 103 over the primary wireless link 107.

Acknowledgement to the audio source 101 and re-transmissions may behandled in any one of several manners. In a first embodiment, theparticipant loudspeaker 103 only sends an acknowledgement to the audiosource 101 if it receives a packet and the observer loudspeaker 105 hasindicated (over the primary wireless link 107) that it received thepacket as well, such as by sending the acknowledge information 205. Theaudio source 101 retransmits unacknowledged packets, such that theobserver loudspeaker 105 and/or participant loudspeaker 103 may receivethe missing data. In a second embodiment, the participant loudspeaker103 acknowledges each packet it successfully receives from the audiosource 101, and relays to the observer loudspeaker 105 over the primarywireless link 107 any packets that the observer loudspeaker 105 did notacknowledge.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system 300 implementedaccording to one embodiment of the present invention including a bridgeconfiguration for wireless communications. The wireless audio system 300includes the audio source 101 and the loudspeakers 103 and 105 in asimilar manner as shown for the wireless audio system 100. Thetransceivers 102, 104 and 106 are included in the respective components,but are not shown for purposes of simplicity of illustration. Thesecondary wireless link 109 is established between the audio source 101and the loudspeaker 103 and the primary wireless link 107 is establishedbetween the loudspeakers 103 and 105 in substantially the same manner aspreviously described. In this case, however, the loudspeaker 103 isconfigured as a bridge or relaying audio information to the loudspeaker105, and the loudspeaker 105 does not receive audio information directlyfrom the audio source 101.

In this case, only the bridge loudspeaker 103 receives audio trafficover the secondary wireless link 109. As shown, for example, a packet301 is wirelessly transmitted from the audio source 101 to the bridgeloudspeaker 103, and the loudspeaker 105 does not receive the packet301. The wireless packet 301 includes stereo audio information includinga first audio channel CHI and a second audio channel CH2. Either channelmay be the left or right audio channel according to stereo audio. Thebridge loudspeaker 103 extracts both the first and second audio channelsCH1 and CH2 from the stereo stream, sending the first channel data CH1to its local audio buffer for playback and the second channel data CH2as a separate packet 303 over the primary wireless link 107 to theloudspeaker 105. The bridge loudspeaker 103 buffers the first channelaudio data CH1 until it receives acknowledgement, such as ACK 305, fromthe loudspeaker 105 via the primary wireless link 107. Unacknowledgedpackets from the loudspeaker 105 are retransmitted by the loudspeaker103 to the loudspeaker 105. It is noted that either loudspeaker 103 or105 may be assigned the role of bridge, in which either one processesthe left channel and the other processes the right channel.

The specific configurations of the primary and secondary wireless links107 and 109 depend upon the implementation or mode of operation. In oneembodiment, the primary wireless link 107 may be implemented using acombination of Bluetooth and a proprietary protocol, and the secondarywireless link 109 is implemented using Bluetooth. The combination ofBluetooth and a proprietary protocol is useful in configurations inwhich the loudspeaker 105 operates in a snoop mode, such as the wirelessaudio system 200, and timing of the acknowledge from loudspeaker 105 toloudspeaker 103 is particularly significant. In another embodiment, theprimary and secondary wireless links 107 and 109 may both be implementedusing Bluetooth, such as the wireless audio system 300 in whichloudspeaker 103 operates as a bridge. In another embodiment, the primarywireless link 107 is implemented with a non-Bluetooth protocol, and thesecondary wireless link 109 is implemented using Bluetooth. Thenon-Bluetooth protocol may be Wi-Fi® (IEEE 802.11) in a peer-to-peermode (such as ad-hoc, Wi-Fi Direct®, DLS, etc.) or any other standard orproprietary protocol. In yet another embodiment, a non-Bluetoothprotocol is used for both the primary and secondary wireless links 107and 109. In this case, any standard wireless protocol may be used on thesecondary wireless link 109 as long as the audio information istransmitted as a stereo stream, i.e., first and second (or left andright) channels are sent together in the same stream, rather thanseparate streams for each channel. Other embodiments are envisioned.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system 400 implementedaccording to a more specific embodiment using Bluetooth stereo audiotransported via the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) forwireless communications. The wireless audio system 400 includes theaudio source 101 and the loudspeakers 103 and 105. The transceivers 102,104 and 106 are included in the respective components, but are not shownfor purposes of simplicity of illustration. Bluetooth technology iswidely deployed in portable media players and mobile phones and thelike. It uses various profiles to define the functions that a deviceprovides. Bluetooth stereo audio is transported via the A2DP profile,though the present invention is not limited to this profile, nor arethey limited to the Bluetooth protocol, and may be applied to any stereostream in which the first and second (or left and right) channels aretransported together. The A2DP profile refers to the source of the audiodata as SRC and the sink of the audio data as SNK. The descriptions thatfollow use the same terminology, with the addition of suffixes for theSNK to differentiate between the first loudspeaker and channel (SNK-1)and the second loudspeaker and channel (SNK-2).

In the wireless audio system 400, the audio source 101 is configured asthe source of the audio data SRC according to the A2DP profile, and theloudspeakers 103 and 105 are configured as sinks of the audio data,shown as SNK-1 and SNK-2, respectively. The primary wireless link 107 isimplemented as a combination of a first Bluetooth piconet PICONET1 and aproprietary link referred to as ACK LINK. The loudspeaker 103,configured as SNK-1, is the master (M) of PICONET1, while theloudspeaker 105, configured as SNK-2, is a slave (S) of PICONET1. TheACK LINK is shown as a unidirectional mode from SNK-2 to SNK-1, althougha bidirectional configuration is also contemplated as further describedbelow. The secondary wireless link 109 is implemented as a secondBluetooth piconet PICONET2 according to the A2DP profile in which SRC isthe master of PICONET2 and the loudspeaker SNK-1 is a slave. Also, theloudspeaker SNK-2 operates as an observer (0) of PICONET2 or listen onlymode, shown as the path 203. Since SNK-1 and SNK-2 participate in twopiconets simultaneously, they are able to support scatternet operation.

In one embodiment, pairing between SNK-1 and SNK-2 on PICONET1 may bepre-programmed at manufacture, such that they may be permanently pairedto one another and have a communication link while powered up. In oneembodiment, such pairing means that the two loudspeakers are able tocommunicate using a common protocol on a common frequency or set offrequencies using predetermined or otherwise known endpoint addresses.The communication between the paired devices may be secure and eachdevice may be authenticated.

After the SNK-1 connects to SRC 101 via the PICONET2 (secondary wirelesslink 109), it uses PICONET1 to pass information to SNK-2 so that SNK-2may listen to the communications between SNK-1 and SRC in a“promiscuous” or “listen-only” mode as previously described. Aspreviously described for the wireless audio system 200, SNK-1 sendscommunication parameters (e.g., communication parameters 201) to SNK-2to enable SNK-2 to observe communications on PICONET2. For Bluetooth,this information includes, but is not limited to, the Bluetooth DeviceAddress (BD_ADDR) and native clock (CLKN) of SRC, the logical transportaddress (LT_ADDR) and clock offset of SNK-1, and encryption parametersfor the link between SNK-1 and SRC, such as the link key. Note thatsecurity is not compromised because these parameters can be sent overPICONET1 while encryption is enabled.

Stereo audio traffic is transported from SRC 101 to SNK-1 and SNK-2 overthe PICONET2. An A2DP stream typically carries compressed stereo audiousing subband codec (SBC), Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Layer III(MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding(ATRAC), or other standard codecs. However, it may also carryproprietary formats, including uncompressed audio. Regardless of thecodec, stereo A2DP traffic may be transported in a single stream, i.e.,the first and second (or left and right) channels are transportedtogether. SNK-1 extracts the first channel from the stereo audio streamfor playback, and SNK-2 extracts the second channel.

The first and second channel audio data is synchronized because bothSNK-1 and SNK-2 are listening to the same audio stream at the same time.Therefore, audio buffers in SNK-1 and SNK-2 fill at the same rate.However, SRC 101, SNK-1 and SNK-2 may have different audio frequencyreferences, which may affect the rate at which the audio buffers areemptied. Therefore, SNK-1 and SNK-2 may lock their frequency referencesto SRC 101 so they play the data back at the same rate. In oneembodiment, this may be accomplished through a control loop implementedat each loudspeaker 103 and 105. In addition, PICONET1 may be used toestablish a common point in time at which both SNK-1 and SNK-2 beginaudio playback.

The ACK LINK provides a channel for SNK-2 to indicate to SNK-1 when ithas received a packet. SNK-2 sends one or more short acknowledgementpackets with good auto-correlation properties to SNK-1 whenever itreceives a packet from SRC 101. SNK-1 only needs to detect one of theacknowledgement packets. Having good auto-correlation propertiesminimizes false detections, while repeating the packet more than onceincreases the likelihood of ACK packet detection, and thereby minimizesthe number of unnecessary audio packet retransmissions. Theacknowledgement packet may be transmitted on the same channel during theidle period that follows the packet transmitted by SRC 101, but beforethe start of the next slot. Therefore, SNK-1 and SNK-2 do not need tore-tune their radios, but rather SNK-2 merely changes its radio modefrom receive to transmit. In an alternative embodiment, the ACK LINK mayoperate on a different channel other than PICONET2. However, this mayrequire both SNK-1 and SNK-2 to re-tune their radios. For Bluetooth, theminimum idle period between the end of any packet and the start of thenext slot is well over 200 microseconds. A radio with fast Rx/Txturnaround time has ample time to transmit one or more acknowledgementsduring this idle period without running into the next slot time.

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the wireless audiosystem 400 for five different cases 501-505 between two consecutivetiming slots N and N+1. In each case operation or function of the SRC101, SNK-2 and SNK-1 are listed as transmission (TX) or reception (RX).An idle period 506 is shown during slot N for SNK-2 to acknowledgereception of a wireless packet by sending an acknowledge (ACK) packet tothe SNK-1.

Bluetooth slaves that receive a packet during slot N acknowledge thatpacket during slot N+1. SNK-1 only provides a positive acknowledgementto the SRC 101 if it has received a packet and if it receives anacknowledgement from SNK-2 indicating that SNK-2 also successfullyreceived the packet. Therefore, SRC 101 re-transmits any packet missedby either SNK-2 or SNK-1. The retransmit filtering mechanism inBluetooth allows SNK-2 and SNK-1 to filter out duplicate packets due tore-transmission.

In the first case 501, SNK-2 and SNK-1 both successfully receive anaudio information packet transmitted by the SRC 101 during slot N.During the idle period 506 of slot N, SNK-2 transmits an acknowledgepacket (TX ACK) indicating successful reception of the packet, which issuccessfully received by SNK-1 (RX ACK). In the next slot N+1, SRC 101receives a positive acknowledge packet from SNK-1 indicating successfultransmission of the audio information packet.

Operation of the second case 502 is similar in which SNK-1 and SNK-2both successfully receive the audio information packet from the SRC 101during slot N. However, SNK-1 does not successfully receive theacknowledge packet from SNK-2 (missing RX ACK). In the next slot N+1,SNK-1 transmits a negative acknowledge packet (NACK) to the SRC 101 (orprovides no response at all) indicating failure of reception of thepacket (even though both loudspeakers may have successfully received theaudio information packet from the audio source). In this case, the SRC101 may re-transmit the audio information packet in a subsequent slot.

For the next case 503, SNK-1 successfully receives the audio informationpacket from the SRC 101, but SNK-2 does not, so that it does not send anacknowledge packet during the idle period 506. Thus, although SNK-1successfully received the audio information packet, it does not receivean acknowledge packet from SNK-2. In the next slot N+1, SNK-1 transmitsa negative acknowledge packet (NACK) to the SRC 101 (or provides noresponse at all) indicating failure of reception of the packet. In thiscase, the SRC 101 may re-transmit the audio information packet in asubsequent slot.

For the next case 504, SNK-2 successfully receives the audio informationpacket from the SRC 101, but SNK-1 does not. SNK-2 sends the acknowledgepacket to SNK-1, but SNK-1 does not receive it. In this case, SNK-1 doesnot respond and thus does not send an ACK in the next slot N+1, whichindicates failure of reception of the packet. In this case, the SRC 101may re-transmit the audio information packet in a subsequent slot.

For the next case 505, both SNK-1 and SNK-2 do not successfully receivethe audio information packet from the SRC 101. Thus there are no furthercommunications during the idle period 506 and slot N+1 indicatingfailure of reception of the packet. In this case, the SRC 101 mayre-transmit the audio information packet in a subsequent slot.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a wireless audio system 600 implemented ina substantially similar manner as the audio system 400, except that ACKLINK is configured as a bidirectional link for increased robustness. Inthis case, each ACK packet sent from SNK-2 to SNK-1 may receive aresponse (ACKr) from SNK-1. Whenever SNK-2 fails to see the responseacknowledge from SNK-1 it re-transmits the acknowledgement packet. Thisprotocol may be generalized to allow N retransmissions of the ACK. Thebi-directional link provides an added level of robustness to minimizethe number of audio packet re-transmissions. It may require a radio withvery fast Rx/Tx and Tx/Rx turnaround times to provide enough time forthe ACK exchange and any retransmissions.

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram similar to that of FIG. 5 illustratingoperation of the wireless audio system 600 for five different cases701-705 between the two consecutive timing slots Nand N+1. In each caseoperation of the SRC 101, SNK-2 and SNK-1 are listed as transmission(TX) or reception (RX) for the audio information packets, or as T or Rfor the acknowledge packets. The same idle period 506 is shown duringslot N for SNK-2 to acknowledge reception of a wireless packet. In thebidirectional ACK LINK case, SNK-2 sends an ACK to SNK-1, and SNK-1sends a response ACK back to SNK-2 via ACK LINK. SNK-2 sends a secondACK in the event SNK-1 does not send a response ACK to the first ACKtransmitted by SNK-2, or if SNK-1 sent a response ACK but the responseACK was not received by SNK-2.

For case 701, SNK-1 and SNK-2 both successfully receive an audioinformation packet from the SRC 101. During the idle period 506, SNK-1receives an ACK from SNK-2 over the ACK LINK, and SNK-2 receives aresponse ACK from SNK-1 over the ACK LINK. SNK-1 sends a positive ACKresponse to SRC 101 during the next slot N+1 to acknowledge successfultransmission of the audio information packet.

For case 702, SNK-1 and SNK-2 both successfully receive an audioinformation packet from the SRC 101. During the idle period 506, SNK-1receives an ACK from SNK-2 over the ACK LINK, but SNK-2 misses theresponse ACK from SNK-1. SNK-2 thus sends a second ACK since the firstwas not acknowledged. Yet since the first ACK was received, SNK-1 sendsa positive ACK response to SRC 101 during the next slot N+1 toacknowledge successful transmission of the audio information packet.

For case 703, SNK-1 and SNK-2 both successfully receive an audioinformation packet from the SRC 101. During the idle period 506, SNK-1misses the first ACK from SNK-2 and thus does not respond. SNK-2 sends asecond ACK which is received by SNK-1. Since the second ACK wasreceived, SNK-1 sends a positive ACK response to SRC 101 during the nextslot N+1 to acknowledge successful transmission of the audio informationpacket.

For case 704, SNK-1 and SNK-2 both successfully receive an audioinformation packet from the SRC 101. During the idle period 506, SNK-1misses both the first and second ACK from SNK-2. In this case, SNK-1sends a negative ACK response to SRC 101 during the next slot N+1 toacknowledge failure of reception of the audio information packet.Alternatively, SNK-1 may provide no response back to the SRC 101 alsoindicating failure. In this case, the SRC 101 may re-transmit the audioinformation packet in a subsequent slot.

For case 705, only SNK-2 receives the audio information packet from theSRC 101 and sends both ACK packets to SNK-1. SNK-1 does not respond toSNK-2 and does not respond to the SRC 101, indicating failure ofreception of the packet. In this case, the SRC 101 may re-transmit theaudio information packet in a subsequent slot.

For either wireless audio system 400 or 600, once SNK-2 has synchronizedto SRC 101, the traffic on PI CONET1 may be significantly reduced bytransitioning to one of the low power Bluetooth states such as sniff,hold, or park. The low power state has the advantage of reducing powerconsumption, thereby extending battery life, while also maximizing theamount of time that SNK-1 and SNK-2 may participate in PICONET2. SNK-2and SNK-1 remain connected in this low power state so that PICONET1 maybe used for link maintenance in the event that either one loses its linkto SRC 101, or if SRC 101 modifies any of the link parameters (e.g.,disables encryption, changes link key, etc.).

Although the present invention has been described in considerable detailwith reference to certain preferred versions thereof, other versions andvariations are possible and contemplated. Those skilled in the artshould appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception andspecific embodiments as a basis for designing or modifying otherstructures for carrying out the same purposes of the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as definedby the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: at a first speakerconfigured to communicate with a second speaker via a first wirelesslink, and configured to communicate with an audio source via a secondwireless link: determining whether an audio packet has been receivedfrom the audio source via the second wireless link; determining whethera snoop acknowledgement corresponding to the audio packet has beenreceived from the second speaker via the first wireless link; and whenthe audio packet has been received and the snoop acknowledgementcorresponding to the audio packet has not been received, relaying theaudio packet to the second speaker via the first wireless link.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: when the snoop acknowledgementhas been received and the audio packet has not been received,transmitting a negative acknowledgement (NACK) to the audio source viathe second wireless link.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein, the audiopacket is scheduled to be received during a first portion of a firstslot, the snoop acknowledgement is scheduled to be received during asecond portion of the first slot, and the NACK is scheduled to betransmitted during a second slot subsequent to the first slot.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein each of the first wireless link and thesecond wireless link comprises one of a Bluetooth connection, aproprietary protocol connection, a peer-to-peer connection, or a WiFiconnection.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio packet comprisesfirst audio channel data and second audio channel data.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: extracting only the first audio channeldata from the audio packet.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, transmitting communication information to the second speakervia the first wireless link, wherein the communication information isused by the second speaker to snoop communications on the secondwireless link.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firstspeaker and the second speaker form a first piconet comprising the firstwireless link and the first speaker and the audio source form a secondpiconet comprising the second wireless link.
 9. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the first speaker comprises an ear bud.
 10. A firstspeaker, comprising: a wireless communication interface configured tocommunicate with a second speaker via a first wireless link and tocommunicate with an audio source via a second wireless link, wherein thecommunication with the audio source is one of bidirectional orreceive-only; and processor electronics configured to perform operationscomprising: determining that an audio packet has been received from theaudio source via the second wireless link; and transmitting, via thewireless communication interface, an acknowledgement corresponding tothe audio packet to at least one of the second speaker or the audiosource.
 11. The first speaker of claim 10, wherein, when the firstspeaker transmits the acknowledgement to the second speaker, theacknowledgement is a snoop acknowledgement.
 12. The first speaker ofclaim 10, wherein, when the first speaker transmits the acknowledgementto the audio source, the processor electronics are further configured toperform operations comprising: determining whether a snoopacknowledgement corresponding to the audio packet has been received fromthe second speaker via the first wireless link, wherein, theacknowledgement is transmitted after receiving the snoopacknowledgement, and wherein, when the snoop acknowledgement is notreceived, the acknowledgment is a negative acknowledgement (NACK). 13.The first speaker of claim 12, wherein, the audio packet is scheduled tobe received during a first portion of a first slot, the snoopacknowledgement is scheduled to be received during a second portion ofthe first slot, and the acknowledgement is scheduled to be transmittedduring a second slot subsequent to the first slot.
 14. The first speakerof claim 10, wherein each of the first wireless link and the secondwireless link comprises one of a Bluetooth connection, a proprietaryprotocol connection, a peer-to-peer connection, or a WiFi connection.15. The first speaker of claim 10, wherein the audio packet comprisesfirst audio channel data and second audio channel data.
 16. The firstspeaker of claim 15, wherein the processor electronics are furtherconfigured to perform operations comprising: extracting only the firstaudio channel data from the audio packet.
 17. The first speaker of claim10, wherein the processor electronics are further configured to performoperations comprising: transmitting communication information to thesecond speaker via the first wireless link, wherein the communicationinformation is used by the second speaker to snoop communications on thesecond wireless link.
 18. The first speaker according to claim 10,wherein the first speaker and the second speaker form a first piconetcomprising the first wireless link and the first speaker and the audiosource form a second piconet comprising the second wireless link. 19.The first speaker according to claim 10, wherein the first speakercomprises an ear bud.
 20. A first speaker configured to communicate witha second speaker via a first wireless link, and configured tocommunicate with an audio source via a second wireless link, comprising:processor electronics configured to perform operations comprising:determining whether an audio packet has been received from the audiosource via the second wireless link; determining whether a snoopacknowledgement corresponding to the audio packet has been received fromthe second speaker via the first wireless link; and when the audiopacket has been received and the snoop acknowledgement corresponding tothe audio packet has not been received, relaying the audio packet to thesecond speaker via the first wireless link.